Mistakes to Avoid at the Boat Show, Part 2

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February 15, 2013

If you’re selling your boat at a boat show, you’re probably interested to see what kind of foot traffic she gets, and the kind of people who may be interested enough to look her over—maybe you can contribute something to the conversation to help her sell. Bad idea, according to Jeff Stanley, the managing partner at Gilman Yachts in Fort Lauderdale.

“For owners, it’s probably a bad thing to sit and listen to people pick on your boat, because they do,” Stanley says. “You have to be very very thick-skinned to be a broker.” You see, it takes all kinds of buyers to see it to sell a boat, and some people just enjoy going negative.

“One guy will come on up and say ‘The interior of this boat smells terrible.’ The next person a half-hour later says, ‘It’s the best-smelling boat in the show.’ You sit there and hear it all: ‘How could they have picked these colors? These are terrible.’ Selling your boat is hard enough. There’s no need to sit and hear such comments.

“Don’t sit on your boat at the boat show,” Stanley says. “Go shop for your new boat or whatever, but don’t sit on your boat.”